This story gripped my interest on many points. First I live in the Sierra Nevada, and the tales of King and King's tall tales I have always found fascinating. I really didn't know anything about his "double life".
Once I began reading this book I could understand how King could pull something like this off. He was elusive and engaging at the same time. His family history and their points of view also help to explain his curiosity with the black world, one that he found exotic and natural.
One reviewer was put off because much of the information was secondhand and conjecture. That is an interesting point of view, but I found just the opposite, I found it interesting and provocative. As the author tells us, much of Ada's story, as with those of most black families, cannot be based on recorded or documented history. Most did not read or write and during the time of slavery they did not even have family names, birth and marriage certificates were also none existent. Therefore most of their history is hearsay, handed down as stories. Martha Sandweiss, in my mind, did a great job of proclaiming fact from educated guess. The fact that assumptions were declared made the story more fascinating. We will never know exactly how Ada came to New York; we will not know the details of Clarence and Ada's meeting and their courtship. The author was careful, referring to history and the state of the black community at the time to draw possible scenarios. She took care not to state them as fact.
If you enjoy American history or the history of the West then you will find this book enthralling. Because I enjoy these things this book captured me from the first page. I know much of what was happening at the time, I knew many of the characters and the places from earlier readings. One of my favorite books is Ramona, a book that King read and romanticized. There was much I did not know about the South, the slave condition and the post emancipation period. I found the chapter, Becoming Ada, very interesting and the fact that so little is known about her is thought provoking.
Wow, what a book! Read it if you are taken by American history, a lover of the Sierra Nevada and its characters. If we demand only facts to support the characters and events in this book it would not have been written and that would be a shame.
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Reviews with images
Passing has always been in vogue
I bought Passing Strange, the story of a white man passing for black, to accompany the story of Walter F. White, the fair-skinned, blue-eyed Black man who passed for white, White Lies. Stick Nella Larsen's Passing in the mix and you have a wondrous literary coverage of a phenomenon that will likely exist until the end of our time, coming soon if IPCC is believed.
Top reviews from other countries
Exercise Queen.
Looking forward to reviewing this book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2023